Iraq Kurdish forces retake key Mosul Dam as US airstrikes continue
Written by : Mohamed Abdel Fattah
Aug 17, 2014
Kurdish Iraqi fighters were reported to have taken back much of a strategic dam in northern Iraq on Sunday a U.S. military launched new airstrikes to help Iraqi forces to retake it.
Kurdish officials say that peshmerga forces backed by Iraqi and U.S. airstrikes involving manned and unmanned jet fighters are continuing around the dam. Iraqi ground forces and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters are involved in an "extensive" ground operation to retake the Mosul dam.
The White House said on Sunday that President Barack Obama authorized U.S. air strikes in Iraq to help retake control of the Mosul Dam.
“The failure of the Mosul Dam could threaten the lives of large numbers of civilians, threaten U.S. personnel and facilities - including the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad - and prevent the Iraqi government from providing critical services to the Iraqi populace,” the White House said in a statement.
The U.S. launched airstrikes against ISIS more than a week ago in a bid to halt its advance across the north. The extremists control vast swaths of Iraq and neighboring Syria.
ISIS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, took the dam just more than a week ago.
U.S. defense officials said Sunday's 14 raids destroyed or damaged armed vehicles, armored personnel carriers and an Islamic State checkpoint.
U.S. airstrikes had been focused on preventing Sunni forces from advancing on the Kurdish capital of Erbil, where hundreds of American military and diplomatic personnel are based, and preventing Islamic State fighters from attacking thousands of Yazidis hiding in the northern Iraqi Sinjar mountains.
Islamic State killed 82-90 Yazidi men and abducted their wives and children Saturday, U.S. officials confirmed.
The Yazidis, a Kurdish-speaking ethnic and religious group which numbers in the hundreds of thousands in Iraq, has been persecuted in the north by Islamic State militants, with at least 500 killed prior to Friday's news, according to Iraq's human rights minister.
Peshmerga fighters have gone on the attack in recent days trying to retake territory in northern Iraq that was lost to ISIS. But the soldiers told CBS News they're simply outgunned and they don't have heavy weapons and equipment to match the ones that ISIS stole from the Iraqi military.
The Islamic State forces enjoy considerable support in Mosul, where many of the largely Sunni Muslim residents regarded the Shiite-dominated Iraqi Army as an occupation force.
Iraqi government troops pulled out of Mosul in June as militants overran the city with the help of local allies, including former stalwarts of the Baath Party of ex-strongman Saddam Hussein.
http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-kurd-iraq-strategic-dam-20140817-story.html
http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-aircraft-conducting-strikes-against-militants-at-mosul-dam-1408200303
http://www.voanews.com/content/airstrikes-begin-on-iraq-mosul-dam/2415650.html
Aug 17, 2014
Kurdish Iraqi fighters were reported to have taken back much of a strategic dam in northern Iraq on Sunday a U.S. military launched new airstrikes to help Iraqi forces to retake it.
Kurdish officials say that peshmerga forces backed by Iraqi and U.S. airstrikes involving manned and unmanned jet fighters are continuing around the dam. Iraqi ground forces and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters are involved in an "extensive" ground operation to retake the Mosul dam.
The White House said on Sunday that President Barack Obama authorized U.S. air strikes in Iraq to help retake control of the Mosul Dam.
“The failure of the Mosul Dam could threaten the lives of large numbers of civilians, threaten U.S. personnel and facilities - including the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad - and prevent the Iraqi government from providing critical services to the Iraqi populace,” the White House said in a statement.
The U.S. launched airstrikes against ISIS more than a week ago in a bid to halt its advance across the north. The extremists control vast swaths of Iraq and neighboring Syria.
ISIS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, took the dam just more than a week ago.
U.S. defense officials said Sunday's 14 raids destroyed or damaged armed vehicles, armored personnel carriers and an Islamic State checkpoint.
U.S. airstrikes had been focused on preventing Sunni forces from advancing on the Kurdish capital of Erbil, where hundreds of American military and diplomatic personnel are based, and preventing Islamic State fighters from attacking thousands of Yazidis hiding in the northern Iraqi Sinjar mountains.
Islamic State killed 82-90 Yazidi men and abducted their wives and children Saturday, U.S. officials confirmed.
The Yazidis, a Kurdish-speaking ethnic and religious group which numbers in the hundreds of thousands in Iraq, has been persecuted in the north by Islamic State militants, with at least 500 killed prior to Friday's news, according to Iraq's human rights minister.
Peshmerga fighters have gone on the attack in recent days trying to retake territory in northern Iraq that was lost to ISIS. But the soldiers told CBS News they're simply outgunned and they don't have heavy weapons and equipment to match the ones that ISIS stole from the Iraqi military.
The Islamic State forces enjoy considerable support in Mosul, where many of the largely Sunni Muslim residents regarded the Shiite-dominated Iraqi Army as an occupation force.
Iraqi government troops pulled out of Mosul in June as militants overran the city with the help of local allies, including former stalwarts of the Baath Party of ex-strongman Saddam Hussein.
http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-kurd-iraq-strategic-dam-20140817-story.html
http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-aircraft-conducting-strikes-against-militants-at-mosul-dam-1408200303
http://www.voanews.com/content/airstrikes-begin-on-iraq-mosul-dam/2415650.html
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